Abstract

America's war in Afghanistan and on Iraq classified as part of the war on terror have
come in the aftermath of the atrocities of September 11, 2001 when America was
attacked by Islamist terrorists. America's response to these attacks, especially the
war on Iraq, has been criticized heavily throughout the world. The U.S. has been
criticized on the basis of morality, in terms of increasing the danger of further attacks
on American soil and by its lack of understanding of the Islamic world. Criticism of
U.S. foreign policy will continue long into the fixture, especially if the U.S. maintains
its status as the only superpower in the world, which is unlikely in the long term,
however we need to understand why America is criticized. The purpose of this thesis is to better understand American foreign policy and why
the U.S. embarks on the policies that it does. This understanding will come by way
of analysing America's stance towards both Afghanistan and Iraq in the last quarter
of a century to see how it has changed in correlation with American needs at the
time. Since the events of 9/11 America has become more aggressive in its foreign
policy stance toward both Afghanistan and Iraq. It has ousted both the Taliban and
the Saddam Hussein regime, with the help of allies, from these respective nations.
This thesis will argue that this is natural given the tenets of political realism. Political
realism is a theory based upon self-interest, power and opportunity. America's policy
towards Afghanistan and Iraq will be intimately tied with these notions, as these
notions have been called upon throughout history. The thesis should be viewed as a
microcosm of the realities of international relations. The essay will discuss different
aspects of International Relations political theory and draw the conclusion that political realism provides the more relevant and stronger theories. I use the word
theories because there exists differing approaches within the nexus of realism,
although core assumptions are maintained. The thesis will explore America's role in
Afghanistan and Iraq in the 1980s as well as in its post 9/11 context. Placed in its
proper context American foreign policy should be seen as something that is natural,
rather than something unique to America.